Minor League Schedule: Three Pitchers Try to Stay Hot on Sunday

Four afternoon games on Sunday and three pitchers starting today have had terrific seasons to this point. Casey Sadler, Adrian Sampson and Orlando Castro have each looked good all year and they hope that trend continues today. Check out the Prospect Watch from last night. For a look at possible starters down the line, check out our Probable Starter Chart. All minor league transactions over the last month can be found at the bottom of the page. Click the link on each pitcher’s name for more information.

Casey Sadler will make his eighth start of the season today. He has also pitched four scoreless innings of relief over two appearances for the Pirates. Sadler has thrown 44.2 innings for Indianapolis, allowing 36 hits, two homers and nine walks. He has 33 strikeouts, a 1.74 GO/AO ratio and a .222 BAA. In his last start, he gave up two earned runs over seven innings. In five away starts, Sadler has a 1.85 ERA.

Adrian Sampson will make his tenth start of the season today. He has thrown a total of 49.2 innings, allowing 40 hits, two homers and 14 walks. He has 41 strikeouts, a 1.12 GO/AO ratio and a .219 BAA. In his last start, Sampson allowed one run over seven innings and struck out a career-high eight batters. This season has been a drastic turnaround for him, as he led the Pirates minor league system with 177 hits allowed last year. Right-handed batters are hitting just .159 against him this season.

Orlando Castro will make his ninth start of the season. He has also pitched once in relief. Castro has thrown 49.2 innings, allowing 41 hits, two homers and seven walks. He has 35 strikeouts, a 1.48 GO/AO ratio and a .229 BAA. In his last start, he threw 6.2 shutout innings. In his previous game, Castro retired the first 18 batters he faced. Surprisingly, lefties are hitting better off the southpaw, collecting a .266 average versus .209 against right-handed batters.

Shane Carle will make his tenth start of the season this afternoon. He has thrown 45.2 innings, allowing 55 hits, three homers and four walks. He has 27 strikeouts, a 1.83 GO/AO ratio and a .304 BAA. In his last start, Carle went six innings, giving up four runs(one earned) on five hits and one walk. He hasn’t walked more than one batter in any start this year. Carle has been hurt by bad defense, leading to unearned runs in five of his starts. In his last five starts combined, he has just eight strikeouts. In the three prior starts, he struck out 19 batters.

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.